Thousand-armed Thousand-eyed Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara (Guanyin)

Multi-armed images of Guanyin, the bodhisattva (enlightened being) of compassion, are popular in several schools of Chinese Buddhism. In its fullest form, the bodhisattva has one thousand arms and hands. Each hand has an eye in its palm that perceives the suffering of the world, and each bears a token that offers a means of salvation.This version has twenty two pairs of arms.

Wearing a crown decorated with figures of the Five Dhyani (Wisdom) Buddhas, Guanyin sits on a lotus throne before a lunar halo. Above its head, two hands hold aloft an image of the bodhisattva’s patron, Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light. Two other hands, palms together, form a mudra (gesture) of reverence, while a third pair rests in a sign of meditation. The other thirty-eight hands hold symbolic objects, such as a vajra (thunderbolt) to represent enlightenment; willow branches to sprinkle compassion upon believers; a sword to sever the bonds of ignorance; and a lotus to indicate the flowering of the mind. At the foot of the lotus throne stands a Buddhist monk, who offers smoke from an incense burner as an act of devotion.